Based on our data and a variety of clinical and epidemiological observations mentioned earlier, we therefore suggest that during infection with diabetogenic viruses, the 2′5′AS-RNaseL system in beta cells becomes activated by IFN-α, while production of dsRNA during virus replication as well as dsRNA-like molecules during increased insulin transcription lead to further induction of OAS genes (either directly or via the TLR3-mediated signaling pathway) and to activation of 2′5′AS by dsRNA (Figure 9). The gene discussed is SMOC1; the disease is infection.